With a surname that begins with one of the last letters in the alphabet, Curtis Wiebe’s friends and family were expecting his to be one of the last names called in May at the University of Manitoba’s convocation for Fine Arts students.
Imagine their surprise – and his – when it was called first.

The distinction was for two awards. Graduating with a four-year honours degree, the local artist earned the U of M governor general’s gold medal award for highest standing in the school of fine arts.
He also won a gold medal for his thesis project, a short film titled The Devil Wears a Paper Hat.

“It felt good to end off my school career on a high like that,” the 33-year-old said over beer and nachos at an Osborne Village establishment earlier this month, adding with a smile: “I jumped through the hoops, and I jumped through them well.”
Wiebe is hosting a free screening of The Devil Wears a Paper Hat on Saturday, June 27 at the Ellice Theatre. The evening will also include a musical performance by The Secondhandpants, the “science folktion” duo Wiebe performs in with his brother, Marlon.

Combining live action and animation, The Devil Wears a Paper Hat draws from disparate influences like Spaghetti Westerns and Alice in Wonderland.

It tells the story of a young girl who falls out of a moving vehicle into a fantasy world, where she confronts eccentric characters like a giant tree man and a cowboy dressed in clothes made of paper.

Wiebe shot the film in rural Manitoba over a series of weekends this past February and March. He enlisted the help of friends and family to work in front of and behind the camera.

Being his project, though, the bulk of the work fell to Wiebe. In addition to writing, directing and editing the film, he played the titular character, wrote and performed all of the music, animated various parts of the film and created the sound effects.
The result is a movie U of M film professor George Toles says is, “for anyone with an ounce of soul.”

It’s all part of a journey Wiebe has been on ever since he shot his first film with his brother Marlon in “2003 or 2004” as part of the Winnipeg Film Group’s “48 Hour Film Contest.” When the film they created placed second, Wiebe wondered what else he could do with the medium.

Recurring themes in the handful of films he’s made since, including I Dream the Taste of Sky and Garbage Knight, are birds, imagination and nostalgia.

In that regard, The Devil Wears a Paper Hat is no different.

“It’s about imagination,” Wiebe said. “It’s about sort of the act of creation – your first moment of creating something you think is awesome.

“The mystery of the wider world and the way things work” also play a part in it, he said. But that’s just his interpretation.

“In the end, it’s a piece of art, and if people don’t see what I see, that’s OK,” Wiebe said. “I hope people can still enjoy it for whatever they see in it.”

Published in Volume 63, Number 28 of The Uniter (June 18, 2009)